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It seems
like something out of a Moffat script, “Don’t touch the water.” It’s something
devious and cryptic to make you scared of a perfectly ordinary object or
phenomenon, like statues, shadows, or gasmasks. However, I can assure you that
this is not an episode of Doctor Who – there is no strange alien or technology
behind it, no Doctor to come make everything alright, and it is most certainly
real.

Don’t touch the water that floods the streets of Puerto
Villamil.

You know
that game you used to play as a kid, where all the floor was lava, you had to
travel across furniture, and if you touched the floor you died? This is kind of
like that, only if you touch the water, you will most likely contract some sort
of very nasty disease or parasite, become extremely ill, possibly have to be
med-evaced out, and/or die. This is all due to the marvelous lack of sewage
system, resulting in all sorts of animal feces, medical waste, garbage
(including batteries), etc. regularly taking up residence in the streets, and
letting loose their barrage of nasties as soon as the rains come.

Last week was the first time that
the rains were so intense for so long (and the drainage, as always, wonderfully
poor), that the street in front of IOI turned into a pond. The water almost
came over the foot-or-so high curbs, and luckily there even are sidewalks on
this road. There were sinsister puddles everywhere dotting my way home, some
requiring some creative footwork to get around.

I did not touch the water.

(PS I apologize for the lack of posts for the past couple
weeks. They’ve consisted largely of waking up, class, field trip, writing a
paper, bed (and some Carnival), leaving very little time for blog posts. My
photostream, however, has been updating (since that’s automatic), so if you
don’t feel like waiting for me to post, you can follow that here.)